I also agree, that's a great picture, thanks for posting it! Its nice to see so much progress over the last 9 years, but this next coming decade will be twice as better is all goes according to schedule. Lets just hope we can recover from this crisis as fast as possible, then we'll be back in the show.

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Reject the lesser evil and fight for the greater good like our lives depend on it, because they do!
-- Dr. Jill Stein, 2016 Green Party Presidential Candidate

I also agree, that's a great picture, thanks for posting it! Its nice to see so much progress over the last 9 years, but this next coming decade will be twice as better is all goes according to schedule. Lets just hope we can recover from this crisis as fast as possible, then we'll be back in the show.

Don't hold your breath. IMO, we are going to go through a longer period of slow or no growth than many people realize. There is absolutely no demand for office space and the vacancy rate keeps climbing steadily. Likewise, there is a glut of unsold condos, there will be no hotel construction, retail is contracting, real estate prices are still decreasing in most areas and credit will not return to anything resembling normal for quite some time.

I'm a realist, not a doomsayer, but realize that there basically is no "schedule" now for many projects. Some of them may never materialize and will eventually be replaced by something else.

Friday, January 23, 2009PUC to clear site for new headquarters
San Francisco Business Times - by J.K. Dineen

The Public Utilities Commission will start demolition on the abandoned state office building at 525 Golden Gate Ave. in San Francisco, a signal that the agency is optimistic it will score funding to construct its planned super-sustainable $188 million new headquarters on the site.

PUC General Manager Ed Harrington said the agency has requested federal funding in the pending stimulus package to help foot the bill for the 12-story Civic Center building. He said he expects to hear in less than a month.

“If we get the funds, we are ready to begin construction of a (LEED) platinum building as soon as demolition is complete,” Harrington stated in an email. “If we don’t get the funding, we will have to consider other options.”

The utilities headquarters has been a pet project for Mayor Gavin Newsom, who has said the structure would “lead the way” in sustainable building and “demonstrate state-of-the-art green building technology.” But with wind turbines on the roof and photovoltaic panels embedded in portions of the facade, the 221,000-square-foot building will not be cheap. And with the city facing a budget shortfall and the cost of leasing office space declining in the Civic Center district, Harrington put the project on hold last June, just before construction was slated to start.

Webcor, the contractor on the project, is “mobilizing” to knock down the existing structure, according to Vice President Shelley Doran.

“We are pleased we have authorization to start demolition because it keeps people working — it creates jobs,” said Doran.

The site, at Polk Street and Golden Gate Avenue, is home to a state office building that closed because of damage from the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake. The city bought it for $1 and originally planned to build a City Hall annex there, but that project was scrapped in 2002 after the dot-com crash.

The on-again, off-again glass palace SFPUC building is now on again. Why the change of heart? Could have something to do with the promise of a cash influx in the form of one very green-friendly stimulus package. The groundbreaking of the $188 million, platinum-LEED certified building stacked from top to bottom with wind turbines and solar panels was planned for a March 2008 groundbreaking— until the mayor's new PUC director woke up in a cold sweat one night with visions of angry utility payers shaking their pitchforks at PUC's new eco-Versailles. Let them eat cake and all that. So the project was put on hold, with the possibility of being simply downsized to only "modestly" green. Apparently so confident of a stimulus check is PUC that contractor Webcor is already "mobilizing" to tear down the current structure at 525 Golden Gate. And if the money doesn't rain down from heaven? "We will have to consider other options."

PUC site a 'poster child for stimulus package
John King
Monday, January 26, 2009

Here's a hoped-for local ripple from the economic package being shaped on Capitol Hill: San Francisco's super-green office building might finally break ground.

At the very least, demolition is set to begin next month at 525 Golden Gate Ave., where an earthquake-damaged state office building has sat empty since 1989. It's also the site where the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission has permits in hand to erect a 12-story headquarters that emphasizes sustainable design and resource conservation.

The catch: PUC General Manager Ed Harrington put the project on hold last summer because of budget and image issues. But with President Obama and Congress looking for politically correct projects that can break ground quickly, 525 Golden Gate's virtues are being touted inside the Beltway.

"We are completely ready to go," Harrington says. "It seems like a poster child for the stimulus package - it's energy efficient, it will create jobs, and it can become a government showcase."

That's been the idea all along; under prior General Manager Susan Leal and her deputy, Anthony Irons, plans were completed for a tower incorporating wind turbines, aggressive water recycling, reused building materials and the like. But when Harrington assumed the post last year, he took a bottom-line look at the design by Kaplan McLaughlin Diaz Architects - and then set the project aside while the agency concentrated on a larger task, the final round of approvals for a $4.4 billion overhaul of the city's water supply system.

"I personally didn't feel good about saying I could build our offices but not a pipeline," Harrington explains.

Whatever the rationale, Harrington's goal now is to secure a federal commitment of up to $75 million for the $188 million project (a total "I'm hoping will come down a bit" given the drop in construction prices, Harrington says). Part of the strategy: spend $4 million right now to remove the homely hulk at the corner of Polk Street and Golden Gate Avenue, one-half block from City Hall.

Current plans aren't as revolutionary as what was unveiled in 2007. Solar panels are now proposed for the roof instead of wind turbines, for instance, though turbines are still likely to run up the front of the tower, a nice bit of environmental sculpture.

Even in modified form, 525 Golden Gate has the potential to be a role model. If it gives us an economic boost as well, all the better.

does anyone have any info on 77 van ness? they are finally taking down the scaffolding on the van ness side, but aside from that i havent seen any progress in the last month or two.

Given that their other project up Van Ness pretty much gave up any effort at sales and went rental about as soon as it was finished, they may be in no hurry at 77. I've been out of town since October so I don't know what it looks like now (actually, I've been wondering) but surely it's too close to completion not to complete at least the exterior (they might delay the interior finishes).

At least they're clearing the site for the PUC building. A vacant lot is much better than what is there now. I'm still crossing my fingers that the new building will find the funding and get built soon.